Public Safety Report: Police keep fight from escalating

A prolonged road rage incident prompted a police response last week.

On Aug. 14 at 8:12 p.m., police responded to the intersection of Lowell and Taylor streets after a caller reported two men fighting next to a truck in a possible road rage incident. When police arrived, the caller no longer wanted to speak with officers.

At 8:36 p.m. the same day, police returned to the intersection. One of the men involved in the alleged road rage incident told police that he had been jumped by 10 men. He said that he decided to handle the situation himself because he believed the police wouldn’t do anything, so he was at the intersection with a baseball bat waiting for the group to come back.

While waiting, the man saw a truck speeding and approached the driver to ask him to slow down. This prompted a verbal dispute during which the man made derogatory racial comments. Police told the man to call them if he saw the group of men again. They also advised him not to handle incidents like this on his own and to request police assistance instead.

A summary of additional police and fire activity from Aug.12 to Aug. 16 is as follows:

On Aug. 12 at 5:35 p.m., police and fire crews responded to Dunkin’ at 859 Main St. An employee thought that a person went into the bathroom to smoke. It turned out the person was just holding a cigarette and did not actually smoke it in the bathroom.

On Aug. 13 at 12:26 p.m., police responded to the post office at 776 Main St. after a caller reported the door was locked and expressed concern. It turned out that only one person was working at the post office that day and had locked the doors while on lunch.

On Aug. 14 at 7:53 p.m., police responded to a residence on Lyman Street. A caller reported seeing kids playing soccer outside and was worried they were unsupervised. Police determined  that the children were supervised.

On Aug. 16 at 11:08 a.m., police responded to the intersection of Lexington Street and Trapelo Road. The caller reported seeing more than a dozen kids on minibikes and mopeds and was concerned they were gathering for a meet-up. Police checked Trapelo Road, Metropolitan Parkway and the Fernald property but did not find the group.

On Aug. 16 at 8:59 p.m., police responded to an apartment on Middlesex Circle after a man reported that an acquaintance had taken his phone. The man said he gave his phone to an acquaintance because the latter’s phone was dead and he needed to make a phone call. When the man went inside to get a charger for the dead phone, the acquaintance ran off with his phone. Police are still investigating.

All information was obtained from spokespeople with the Waltham Police and Fire departments, the publicly available police blotter and police reports available at Waltham District Court.